The first library able to be accessed by the public still had some work to do on the part of making what one today would consider “public”. Although contested, according to the American Library Association (ALA), the first was created in November 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, a library anyone could access provided he or she obtained a subscription to it.

With the advent of regulations on what could be called libraries and the aforementioned ALA, the majority of libraries today are public, whether it be the monolith of the New York Public Library or the smaller but still beautiful system of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL). There are also many libraries inside of well-funded school systems such as Cincinnati’s Elder High School or Saint Xavier High School, both having elegant and modern libraries for students.

Although public libraries have been a staple in the United States for its entire existence, there have always been attempted attacks on the funding that the government provides for these libraries. In recent events from the summer, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported on July 7 this year, the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, along with President Trump “have targeted the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for elimination.”

While Congress has blocked previous attempts on eliminating these agencies, the issue remains concerning for those who understand the importance of public libraries. To illustrate this, one can look at many aspects of these places of knowledge, with the chosen issues being to look at the usage of the CHPL system as places of gathering and learning through more than just books as well as multiple school libraries and their usages beyond the books housed in them.

CHPL Benefits

To learn about how public libraries can be used for more than the traditional thought of a library, Mrs. Paula Brehm-Heeger, the Executive Director of CHPL, has many thoughts on how libraries should not be thought of as the way her generation and the ones before thought of them.

“When I was a kid, you’d come in and you would get your own card catalog and you’d find the book, and it was all very individual. You would get the book because that’s how information [worked]; the container was the book, but information hasn’t got that kind of guardrail or constraint anymore.”

Jumping off from this point on information being much more readily available after the revolution in technology when coming into the 20th century, she continues by explaining one of the biggest points of all modern libraries.

“If you look here in Cincinnati, our public libraries also act as community centers. That’s evident particularly in some of our larger, newer buildings. Forest Park is a great example that this big library we built in a city that has struggled [in] its own development and economic struggle over the years, so they don’t have a community center.”

Other than communities meeting in the libraries, there was also points made about specific anecdotes of her own sights around the libraries such as seeing the vice mayor meet with constituents in one of the Downtown Main Library branch’s meeting rooms, another amenity that CHPL offers to break this outdated idea of a library.

Mrs. Brehm-Heeger then uses this point to wrap back to concerns about past citations on DOGE’s

Overall, while Paula greatly wishes to honor what past generations used to believe about public libraries, books, and “the story times they went to,” she also wants to greatly emphasize that libraries are “books and more,” places where people, especially young, can go to “expand their imagination to become lifelong learners… if you take a classroom [of students] to a library, there is a moment of discovery.”

There have been many other usages of CHPL buildings than the multiple previously mentioned. One of the most important in past memory was Cincinnati hosting the Urban Libraries Council, libraries from across the country coming to the city to discuss the major issues facing them.

One of the ideas spoke on at this council and important for understanding a modern library is the library as a civic information center: “A lot of times [with] government, local, state, or even federal programs, you have to go to a building to access what you need to understand what’s happening, and it’s just not as accessible as public libraries, so we have libraries across the county that can act as a portal, act as a liaison to government services.”

Another very important and somewhat overlooked aspect of public libraries is the nature of comfort that many have. Mrs. Brehm-Heeger said that, after the Great Recession in the 2000s, workforce development was a very big focus.

“When you have disrupted times and people are losing their jobs, the jobs appear to be changing, and they don’t have the skills to continue, many people are uncomfortable seeking out direct help; they don’t know how or feel embarrassed or don’t want to do it, but they need the help.” This gets her big point across, where one can go home at the end of the day much less exhausted than what used to be the case since, as Paula put it, “You just get to go out and say, ‘I went to the public library.'”

One final point is the help in places of crisis the library will give with Paula talking of how the library has “a partner who has federal dollars to provide afterschool and weekend snacks.” Another example of this is the Wi-Fi provided by the library during the hardship of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now that there is a basis set for what public libraries can do, the opportunity to look at libraries in schools is created, seeing what is the same and what differs about this idea of the modern library.

The Teacher’s Perspective

The first stop on this short trip around to school libraries is from Elder High School. Elder’s library is a part of one of Elder’s biggest expansions other than its creation: an old supermarket revamped into the “Schaeper Center”. Here, Elder has a library open from around seven in the morning to four in the afternoon.

Elder’s library is very open, having the ability to move chairs and tables anywhere to fit the needs of those who are using it. There are also chairs fit to do hard work in and comfier chairs to relax in. One person who uses this library almost if not every day is religion teacher Mr. Greg Dickman.

Mr. Dickman talks of libraries very passionately as his family lives very close to the Madeira branch of CHPL, saying that “We visit the library as a family once or twice a week during the summer. My kids are actually excited to go there! What better way to make a ‘teacher dad’ happy.”

Due to this love for libraries, the actions that the government has taken against libraries concern him greatly. He made sure to note how libraries are “essential” and need to be kept around as a necessity.

This concern for public libraries contributes to his want for good public and private school libraries: “I’m a teacher. I want kids (and adults) to be smarter, not dumber. It seems obvious to me.”

As for the usage that Elder’s library gets, a unique part of Greg’s experience is his usage of the library in a much more “conventional” manner; although, looking at what libraries are much more often used as today, it is somewhat surprising seeing Mr. Dickman’s usage of the Elder library to get ahold of many books.

“I use Elder’s library frequently, I have checked out many books and ordered many with the help of Mrs. Williams Mitchell and Mrs. Kelly.” Moreover, his talk on how he uses the library flows over into the modern idea as well.

“I have used the Maker Space plenty of times. I love to use [the library] as a quiet space for movie watching on my computer if I have downtime during my day to unwind from teaching. I find it an inviting space. I have also used it for various class activities and assignments.”

The majority of the time, Elder’s library has the most activity in the morning, where students are getting ready for the new day by doing some early work; after school, where students also meet to do work or relax after a long school day; and during Flex bell, where students can sign up to go to the library and have a productive, quiet study time during the school day.

The School Librarian’s Perspective

The next perspective to look at to see what other usages an establishment can get from a library is from Saint Xavier High School, another private high school on the east side of Cincinnati. Compared to Elder, St. X’s library is sizably larger and has many more seating locations than Elder’s as well as having many more books and a more up-front desk rather than Elder’s smaller desk with an inside office for the librarians.

The librarian at Saint X, Ms. Jennifer Donahue, while still having concern over current actions against libraries, has more hope than previously seen with the situation at hand against public libraries due to the experience of being an apprentice under Mrs. Brehm-Heeger and knowing the history of action against libraries by the government in America.

“Libraries and librarians are always having to adapt to changing technologies, changes in funding, and so the people running them are well-versed in these types of situations. Fortunately, even at the state level a couple months ago there was a potential to have the budget slashed, and the public really rose up in support of their libraries, and the governor heard that.”

Going onto the library she serves under, Jennifer continues onto talking of how students can use the library at St. Xavier.

“Our library here is occupied all day long. We open 45 minutes before school starts, and we stay open after school. Our busiest times are those 45 minutes before school starts, and we’ll have an upwards of a hundred students here because it’s the only supervised quiet place in the building.”

Another time that the library is busy is during students’ Flex bells, a bell happening corresponding to lunch every day where students can eat and then meet with clubs, talk to counselors, or get work done in the library since “all the students are free; we’ll have every seat occupied.”

An interesting point about the most occupied times for Saint Xavier’s library is that the students are “never assigned to be in [the library],” meaning the many usages that it gets are all encouraged by the student’s own will to get into a quiet space.

As for other usage of the library based off its amenities, Mrs. Donahue gives the many examples needed to understand the true mileage this library gets: “We have printers in here, so when the students need to print something, this is where they come. We’re connected to our IT department, so if they need computer help, they come to us too. We’ve got tables that seat four, and we have about a dozen individual study carols, and we have some comfy chairs, so there’s a variety of spots that students can make themselves comfortable.”

Overall, these libraries, whether it be a branch of the CHPL system or a school’s library, get much more use than the housing of books that the ideas of previous generations created for the library. Whether it be the ability to gather to learn gratitude or allowing students to grow into true learners through deep and quiet study, libraries need to stick around for all.